Chapter Forty-Eight

Second Chances

Sandy met North down by the kiln, and the Cossack was already carefully placing the clay objects onto the firing grate when Sandy arrived. He floated in to hand North his dolphin figure and watched on as North set the pieces carefully down.

North placed the dolphin next to the other two figures and signaled to the yeti with a thumbs up, who had been waiting to start the next batch after Sandy had brought the last figure to add to the lot. North moved away from the kiln now brushing the stray cement dust off his hands and peering up to look at Sandy giving him a small nod of acknowledgement. North was lost in thought, and once the two were walking out of the ceramics area, North addressed Sandy, "Pitch has changed so much Sandy, there are still rough edges to buff out, but he is really trying. I feel this in my belly, and belly does not lie," he smiled up at the golden man with no small hint of amusement for any time he mentioned his belly having prophetic abilities.

For Sandy's part, the dream weaver smiled giving a happy agreeable nod. He could see the change in many aspects that Pitch exuded but none so much as within the dreams that he sifted through when he drew out a map to keep Pitch's subconscious in a happy place throughout the night. It had become apparent that one of the biggest reasons that Sandy had had such a hard time giving the nightmare lord good dreams wasn't just because of the fearling presence in his subconscious mind but the lack of happy thoughts and memories he had to pull from to give a good dream. Now the task was relatively easy compared to those dreaded nights in the hospital when Sandy had labored intensively to even touch Pitch's mind long enough just to subdue his nightmares let alone give him a good dream.

North stroked his beard, "But there is problem with Tooth and Pitch, I need to find way to bring back together. They were good friends, I need to find good happy medium for them to talk. I am racking brain but am having hard time. Any suggestion?"

Sandy's brow wrinkled in consternation as he thought on North's query. It was hard to say exactly what would constitute a good place for the two to talk; he flashed a picture of Tooth, the Tooth Palace, and a question mark.

North bobbed his head left and right, "Eh, she is indecisive. I ask her yesterday if she would come up to eat, so two could hash out differences, but she said no. She is not ready. With Tooth though, it is hard to say if time further away from fight will help or hurt situation. She still holds on to incident with little fairies when Pitch tried to drown world in darkness. Tooth has done well looking past much, but I know Tooth, and that skirmish will always be at back of mind for her. Tooth Palace would be bad place for meeting because of this. She needs to feel her home and fairies are safe, so neutral ground is must. Besides, I do not want Pitch away from Pole especially after recent stealing of reindeer and going back to hole. No, he needs to stay here where I can keep eye on."

Sandy gave North a sad frown and shrugged not really sure what to suggest. With the limited parameters, it left little else to propose. Tooth obviously needed to blow off some steam, but North was right, maybe more time away from the problem might cause less of a chance to fix it. He pointed a thumb at his chest looking resolute as he made a sand image of himself with Toothiana.

North smiled, "Ah Sandy! Would you? Maybe you can help her come to terms, so we can get ugly mess behind us. She is good influence on him. Pitch cares much for her, and I think Tooth cares for him as well even, if Pitch can be a bit hard headed and rude."

Sandy raised both eyebrows giving a knowing nod as if North had just scraped the tip of the iceberg. He bowed giving a salute as a farewell deciding that he would move through his runs and go to visit Toothiana afterward. The two worked around the same schedule, so it would make conversing a little easier after their nightly tasks had been adhered to.

North waved as he watched Sandy dip down the corridors towards the globe room until he disappeared. Once Sandy was out of sight, North trundled off towards his own chambers to call it a night.

Dawn was breaking over Tooth Palace, and fairies darted to and fro moving teeth into canisters with lightning speed and the highest efficiency.

Sandy took this all in with sleepy eyes as he drifted on a cloud made of sand around the many high rising spires looking for Toothiana; it didn't take long to find her. She was in the hub of her palace directing her fairies as she zipped about to oversee their work.

Toothiana's crest rose in alarm sensing Sandy before she ever saw him, but once his familiarity became apparent, her feathers smoothed and an instant bright smile revealed itself, "Sandy? Hey!" She zipped out of the central trafficking center for processing the teeth and towards her golden friend with a curious look. When they converged she finally asked, "You're out kind of late; what brings you out my way?"

Sandy returned her smile patting a patch of cloud next to him as a sign for her to join him.

Tooth tilted her head at the gesture before awkwardly dropping from a hover onto her knees upon the fluffy cloud as she studied him now, "Is everything okay?" She questioned hesitantly.

The golden man patted her hand gently as he turned a warm smile on her. He paused a moment just letting the gesture hang in the air before forming a sand picture of her and Pitch sitting together with talk bubbles over their heads. He followed the depiction with a question mark.

Tooth observed the display with a small frown before she sighed tiredly, "Ah… this is about what I brought up last night…" She hadn't really expected Sandy to seek her out and follow up over what she had said the previous night. She'd simply wished to vent her frustrations since the whole debacle was still a raw wound, and talking to North about it had stirred up several emotions within herself on the subject. She shook her head, "We haven't talked. It might be best if I just avoid the Pole for a while."

Sandy grimaced at her admission before flashing an image of Pitch looking despondent. He changed the scene to her floating into the picture with a talk bubble and a heart forming over the head of a much happier Pitch.

Tooth looked away torn by her feelings on the matter. She did want to talk to Pitch and reconcile; she cared for Pitch, even if much of the time he made her feel weary from trying to work with him only to have him throw a tantrum and insult her or her friends. He was an odd creature that simultaneously could be considerate and kind to her and extremely condescending or rude to another in the same breath. Of course he could easily turn those barbs on her when she said something he took offense to. This was just how Pitch was, and after the last incident she wasn't sure if she wanted to get back on that roller coaster any time soon. Still, the fact that both North and Sandy seemed to be going out of their way to ask her to talk to him meant they obviously felt she needed to sooner rather than later most likely for Pitch's sake than her own.

Truthfully, she was thinking to avoid the Pole for a few months to evade how she felt like she was getting nowhere with helping Pitch, and if anything was just making matters worse. It was why Pitch had ran away, because she stepped over the line. No, this was Pitch's fault; she warred with herself hard-pressed to find absolution from her unwarranted guilt. She knew it wasn't really her fault, but nothing she told herself made her feel better about what had happened as an end result of their confrontation. It was really for the best that she just get lost in her work. It was one of the ways she coped with stress.

Tooth was silent for a long moment; she was being selfish she realized. Pitch's rehabilitation was all of their responsibility, and backing off for her own peace of mind was only going to cause further issues internally for Pitch who craved the connection and for North who would bear the brunt of her decision to break away. She inhaled deeply and gave a nod, "Okay. I still think I should make Pitch stew after the way he behaved, but I'll put my feelings aside and go talk to him if it'll make you and North happy."

Her words made Sandy brighten with a wide smile pleased he was able to convince her not to put it off. He could tell the thought of having to confront Pitch was still vexing her, so he patted her hand once more clasping it in his lightly for support.

Pitch blinked taking in a deep breath as he stretched; it was still early. The sun was up, but the sky was tinged in baby blues putting the time around 6AM. Pitch sighed, unlike yesterday, he didn't have as much planned to do with his day and waking this early only made to prolong the pain of boredom. He covered his head trying to go back to sleep, but after an hour of lying in bed tossing and turning, Pitch grunted throwing his sheets from atop his head to stare at the porthole window and see the placing of the sun, another reminder of how little time had passed. Wanting to find something to do other than mope, since the more he thought on his plight, the more he was prone to do just that, Pitch pulled himself up to sitting against the headboard and grabbed his book from the nightstand.

He lost himself to reading for a couple hours and finished the book. The ending was fitfully heartwarming with Ebenezer Scrooge realizing the joys of Christmas and changing his greedy ways. Pitch rose to place the book on his bookshelf thinking about the ending and wondering if his story could be seen as similar in regards to finding a new outlook in life. The most relatable points in the book Pitch felt tied to was how Ebenezer found a want to no longer be alone and that Christmas represented togetherness and family. Pitch did want this more than he cared to admit, and it was more and more painfully obvious the longer he stayed at the Pole. At one point in his very long life, he'd done everything in his power to rid himself of his humanity. These days, he was embracing it.

Pitch went through the other books on his shelf now looking to pick another book, but he wasn't really in the mood to read anymore. He grabbed one anyway and placed it in the spot his other book had been for when he did find the urge to read again. Pitch grabbed some of the left over clay from what North had brought, and he tried once more to make something, but after an hour of playing with it and failing, Pitch lost interest. Everything he tried to make looked like something out of a kindergarten class he thought as he smashed all his failed attempts into one blob and chucked it back in the bag.

Feeling a tad disgruntled by his obvious lack of talent in sculpture making, Pitch slumped back into his seat folding his arms to lay his head on the table to fume.

A small knock came to the door.

Pitch raised his head in surprise. It was only a little after ten, and Alla and North weren't due to come by until after one. The knock wasn't North's either, Pitch's heart rose into his throat, it was Toothiana's. He slipped from his seat and made his way to the door cracking it to peer out.

Toothiana hovered in front of the door and regarded Pitch's curious look with a small smile, "Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Pitch's jaw hung open; he wanted to invite her in, but after yesterday night's discussion with North, Pitch knew better. It was agonizing to turn her away, but he also didn't want North to be angry with him. He swallowed as a pout overtook his features, "Uh… I …I want to, but I can't. North… North's not allowing me any visitors at the moment outside himself and Sandy." Just saying as much hurt his pride immensely, and Pitch felt the need to look away from her steady gaze wholly humiliated now.

She nodded in understanding, "Alright. I don't want to go against North's wishes. Did he say when you can have visitors again?" She was honestly impressed that Pitch had even admitted his current punishment to her seeing how much it was bothering him.

Pitch blushed, "I'm… I've been grounded for one week since… the day after our argument. I'm not sure if North's definition of one week is five or seven days; I… I didn't ask," he wasn't positive if she had been made aware of the incident that had transpired the day of their argument, but Pitch had decided not to mention his running away, just in case she wasn't informed, even though Pitch assumed Toothiana was well aware. The guardians seemed to keep each other up to date in all relevant issues especially concerning him. The guardians all standing around in a meeting discussing him and how he was to be dealt with came to mind then, and Pitch lightly winced at the thought. His eyes flicked up to Toothiana to gauge her reaction noting she still fixed him with a level stare. It wasn't unkind, but it was guarded. She wasn't going to forgive him easily, of that much he was well aware. He earned that he supposed after the way he'd spoken to her, still, she was here now, and that was a step towards reconciliation. The fact that she'd come at all filled him with hope that he could make up with her.

"Okay; I'll go talk to North, and I'll come back to see you when you are allowed visitors once more." That was a relief Tooth thought, she didn't really want to hash out their argument at the moment anyway, and after coming to see Pitch, she hoped it put the nightmare lord's mind at ease that she would be back to talk it out later. She was also kind of glad she came to see him for this brief encounter since it gave her renewed strength to want to mend things between them by erasing the horrible memory of how they had previously ended their conversation by the conveyor as the last words they'd shared. This was much more neutral and promising. She turned to leave, "Goodbye, Pitch," she remarked as she did so.

Pitch was sad to see her go, and called out to her retreating back, "Toothiana!"

Tooth halted turning her head back to Pitch with a questioning look on her face, "Yes?"

"I'm …I'm sorry. About what I said… you were right, I …I was being immature," he grimaced looking quite contrite. He remembered what she'd said to him, and it still stung, but Pitch also knew that he needed to put it aside and let her know that he had as well. Most of their argument had stemmed around him not taking responsibility for his actions, and this was his way of admitting fault to her as well as apologizing.

Tooth's lips tugged into a grin and she gave him a small nod pleased by what she heard, "I accept your apology, Pitch." She turned back saying no more as she zipped down the corridor.

Pitch watched her go a small smile of his own cropping on his face as he softly closed the door; he felt a heavy weight lift from his shoulders. He was filled with a thrill of excitement now to know he and Toothiana had made up enough to know that she would be back, and she was giving him a chance to make things right between them.

The remainder of his morning, until Alla and North showed up for his lesson, was taken up with a long shower and some more reading. The encounter with Toothiana had left Pitch in high spirits, and he was still quite happy when Alla and North arrived as he opened the door with to let them in with a bright smile, "Salutations!"

Alla grunted a hello patting his head as she entered.

North gave a soft chuckle, "You are so chipper, Pitch! I am guessing talk with Tooth made you feel better?"

Pitch blinked slightly stunned that North already knew about their chat, "Uh… yes. I told her she couldn't come in," he felt the need to add as worry etched his brow."

North full out laughed now as he reached out to pat Pitch's back comfortingly, "I know. She told me. You listened without… prompting."

Pitch flushed deeply looking at Alla momentarily before his eyes flitted back to North. He gave a quick nod, "I didn't want to disappoint you again… or …uh…" Pitch moved from foot to foot unable to continue the subject as he averted his eyes.

North nodded moving his hand up to Pitch's chin and lifting his eyes back up to meet his own. North beamed a warm smile down at him, "You did not disappoint me; you did just opposite. I am proud of you, Pitch."

Pitch's eyes widened reflecting uncertainty at the praise; hearing North say those words to him gave him a feeling that he couldn't have heard him right, but the way North smiled at him, Pitch knew it to be true. He found himself smiling back with an even deeper blush now as he stated quietly, "Thank you."

"You get better every day, Pitch. You just must remember to keep this," he tapped Pitch's chest where his heart lay, "…leading your way. Be true to self. Heart usually knows better than the head, and I have known you long enough now to see you have good heart, Pitch. All else will fall in to line. Da?"

Pitch grimaced as he took in a deep breath thinking about North's statement, "I hope so…"

North let go of Pitch's chin and ruffled his hair as he walked to the wall to grab the chalkboard and easel from the floor beside the dresser, "I know so! Now, go sit; Alla is waiting."

Pitch moved over to his desk and pulled up his stool to sit readying himself for his lesson. There was still some residual soreness in his seat, but not enough to contest sitting today thankfully Pitch thought as he shifted about trying to get comfortable. It was hard to focus on the lesson Pitch found as his mind kept wandering to Toothiana and her coming to see him again. North's reassurance on the matter had only caused a resurgence of the thoughts that had him so ramped up only hours ago. He was daydreaming of how the scenario would go now and what he would say to make her happy with him once more.

"Pitch!" North snapped his fingers to get the nightmare lord's attention.

Pitch started blinking rapidly and turning his attention back to the chalk board where Alla was doing a quick refresher of what they'd just covered. He shook his head, "Uh, sorry! I was just a little distracted!"

The Russian grunted giving him a glare, "You are being rude to Alla ignoring her when she is trying to give lesson. Do you want to do lesson today, or would you rather go back to being alone in room by self?"

Pitch's eyes widened as he shook his head vehemently, "Na-no! I apologize Alla! Please, do continue. I'm listening now; I swear." Pitch looked sheepish now as he adjusted himself in his stool and did his best to get back on track and give Alla his rapt attention.

Once Pitch was back on track, North nodded his approval moving to the door, "I forget to go visit Paul to see if workbook is done. You two continue, and I'll be right back."

Pitch's eyes were drawn to the retreating Cossack as he watched him leave before turning back to Alla to let her know he wasn't ignoring her. He really couldn't especially now that North was no longer present to translate.

Alla was forgiving and just continued the lesson as if nothing happened. They covered the old material, and they had started practicing sounds when North arrived once more carrying a stack of five books and one very large notebook binder that he slapped down on the table.

"Paul got friends who helped him make several books! I did not ask so much, but he thought it was good idea for teaching others yeti language to make good reference material, so they stayed up late last night to make these books. He explained that they go up in level each numbered book, and notebook is teacher's guide to all books. It will make teaching easier for Alla," North stated jovially as he brought the stack of five smaller books to Pitch and the binder to hand to Alla.

Both Alla and Pitch began looking through their respective materials quite curious of the contents.

Pitch hadn't realized before he'd started this venture that it would become so complicated. Not that the extra material wasn't helpful. He really had underestimated the yetis and their cognitive ability to which he now felt slightly chagrinned to have made such derogatory comments about them to North previously.

Alla grunted an affirmative pleased remark to North who nodded, "You are quite welcome, Alla! I am glad Paul and friends could help you so much. I will be sure to let them know you are very happy with learning supplements."

Alla turned her attention back to Pitch and called out a page number and pointed to the page number in her book since Pitch was unfamiliar with the yeti terms for numbers; that was to be their next lesson, but first, Alla wanted to let Pitch practice what he'd just learned yesterday and was refreshed on a bit today in his new workbook. It would give him a little hands on with the language without having North or herself there to push him along which was always conducive to learning.

Pitch observed the page of the lesson in Alla's book with a nod of acknowledgement as he flipped open the book labeled with a one and put the other four books in his desk. He grabbed out a pencil and placed the book turned to the correct page number on top of the desk. The books were all ringed notebooks with perforated pages that were easily torn out, so Pitch tore the first page out and placed the bulk of the rest of the book on top of his desk to give himself plenty of room to work.

Alla and North sat at the table and talked quietly while Pitch worked to give him privacy and room to concentrate on the work.

Pitch moved through the page rather quickly only pausing a couple times to think about the question and what it asked. He was frankly impressed that Paul and his friends had been able to create books like these so quickly since North had told him that he'd only tasked him with the project this week. The rate the yetis could produce most things really was remarkable to say the least.

It took about ten minutes for Pitch to finish the page, "Done!" he yelled out proudly picking up his paper and hopping off of his stool to bring it over to the table where both North and Alla turned to regard him.

Alla smiled warmly taking the page and looking it over and giving a nod as she rose to pat him on the back grunting a congratulations.

"She says good job, Pitch. You answer all questions correctly," North nodded with his own approval.

Pitch beamed to hear as much before he turned to move back to his desk as he saw Alla returning to the chalkboard.

While Alla and North had talked, Alla had had a chance to look through the teacher's guide to know where she wanted them to go next in the book. She informed Pitch what page to turn to.

He flipped to the page, and they spent the next hour going over numbers, and verbs throughout the first chapter alternating from first the chalkboard to the book, and when they'd finished for the day, Alla pointed through the chapter work pages that they had moved over of the covered material. They were practice pages; ten in all, and Alla circled each of them with a red pen rumbling as she tapped them.

"She says that she would like to see you work through pages sometime between tonight and when we meet up tomorrow," North informed.

Pitch looked over the pages with a slight frown. What Alla was asking was going to take him no less than an hour, and that's if he breezed through the material like he had the first lesson (which was much simpler than this newer information.) He didn't voice his complaint though; it would be something to do he supposed, and they had gone through all the material she was asking him to cover, so it shouldn't be too difficult. It wasn't like he'd had any tutelage in any of the other languages he'd learned outside of watching parents teach their children and of course the dreaded spelling bee nightmares which seemed to entertain Pitch to no end with the ridiculousness of some of the words the children had been afraid to spell. Words that he'd not heard in an age if at all. Of course half the time the words were gibberish and the point of them being gibberish inflamed the nightmare since there was no comprehending it. Human children really were quite funny creatures at times with the trivialities they latched on to and feared direly.

Alla barked a question at Pitch, and he turned towards her with a look of clear incomprehension.

North grunted a translation, "She asked if you are alright with work; she sees frown and is worried she has upset you."

Looking over at North's obvious disapproval; Pitch shook his head as he looked back up at Alla earnestly, "It's fine Alla; I was… uh …just surprised with the work load is all. It shouldn't take as long as I thought initially…" Pitch grumbled under his breath, "Besides, it's not like I have much else better to do with my time stuck here in my room."

North replied gruffly giving Pitch a warning glare to put his attitude in check, "Is true. You don't, Pitch. Make time in room beneficial."

Pitch jerked his head over to North in surprise. He thought he'd said that low enough not to be heard, but apparently not low enough. He gulped knowing that look by now well enough to know he needed to curb the negativity. The last thing he wanted was that kind of reminder especially in front of Alla. Although if he were to be honest with himself, she probably already knew as most of the Pole's denizens likely were well aware of how he was 'handled' by North. Still, hearing about it and seeing it were two entirely different things, and getting a spanking was definitely not what Pitch ever wanted to be a visual for anyone and especially not Alla since he really liked her. He cleared his throat, "Of course… I… I need to practice the material anyway," he stated weakly flitting Alla a shy smile.

Alla seemed pleased enough giving him a pat on the head as she grunted, "Goodbye, Pitch."

Pitch had recognized the sounds for what they were and attempted to repeat them much to both Alla and North's delight as they laughed. Pitch straightened looking offended, "What? What's so funny?!"

The Cossack continued to laugh heartily as he waved his hand back and forth, "No, no! Is good Pitch! We laugh because you tell Alla, 'Goodbye, Pitch,' so effectively you just say goodbye to self. Is funny no?"

"Oh," Pitch chuckled softly, he could see the humor in that. He had originally assumed he'd managed instead to butcher the language and this was what they had been laughing about. He was pleased that it was not even though if he had butchered the language he couldn't have blamed them for laughing at him then either.

Alla squeezed his shoulder, and when Pitch looked back in her direction she gave a shortened version of her usual grunt.

North piped in, "That is how you say just goodbye in yeti language."

Pitch tried the sound, and Alla muttered a guttural praise with a nod to let him know that he'd said it correctly.

"Good job, Pitch. Again, you have done well today," As North spoke, he rose from the rocking chair stretching his lower back before moving towards Pitch's door, "I will be back later tonight for dinner."

Alla gave Pitch's shoulder one more squeeze before she turned to trundle after North.

Pitch always felt a sort of panic whenever he watched them go now knowing he was about to be left to his own devices once more. It really wasn't that bad he had to admit. It made him feel foolish and silly, but he couldn't help these feelings from taking hold of him and sending false fears through him. He watched them go with a small pout as he stood next to his desk with his workbook clutched to his chest.

Once they had closed the door and left him in the still silence, Pitch's eyes were drawn back down to the workbook in his arms, and he relaxed his hold to just hold the book in his hands casually now. He moved over to his desk and grabbed his pencil before gliding back to the table and settling in to pull out all the pages Alla had instructed him to complete and got to work.